general 2021 MLB discussion thread

This is the last frame of the top of the 7th inning, followed by the first frame of the bottom of the 7th.
So, yeah ... as great as Williams' moment was, this is another Trevor Bauer story. pic.twitter.com/wz1n5ha3xn

— Bradford William Davis (@BWDBWDBWD) August 27, 2021

Vladimir Guerrero's son drives home Dante Bichette's son, then challenges Mike Cameron's son in RF for a double. 1-0 Blue Jays lead against former NBA player Rich Manning's son.

— Jason Beck (@beckjason) August 27, 2021

that’s wild.

you know what else is wild? yanks winning 13 straight and STILL 4 behind tampa bay.

adam wainwright is having a pretty incredible season for a guy who turns 40 on monday

of course it helps that four of his starts have been against the pirates (10 H and 1 ER in 30 IP ffs)

Rays are 17-1 against the o’s

it helps that that wainwright's been throwing against the pirates a lot recently, but he's been solid all season. a real surprise that he is still the legitimate "ace" of the cardinals. his last 9 starts: 1.55 ERA, 2.44 FIP, 58.0 IP, and he went through at least 7 innings in all but one (which was 6 innings).

he's second in baseball in innings pitched this year (169.2 right now, behind only Zack Wheeler at 176.2).

i'm a big doofus for calling for his retirement a few years ago. after 2015-18 i really thought he was done. in interviews and such, he always mentions that his arm was really hurting badly during that entire time (duh), but that he legit feels much better now. he always says stuff like "it's nice to not be in terrible pain!" or whatever. makes sense!

yadi is supposedly retiring after 2022, it would be fitting for wainwright to go as well, if he wants to sync up the retirement party train with his pal

Games started	Pitcher	Catcher	Years	Team
324	Mickey Lolich	Bill Freehan	1963–1975	Detroit Tigers
316	Warren Spahn	Del Crandall	1949–1963	Boston and Milwaukee Braves
306	Red Faber	Ray Schalk	1914–1926	Chicago White Sox
299	Adam Wainwright	Yadier Molina	2007–present	St. Louis Cardinals
283	Don Drysdale	John Roseboro	1957–1967	Los Angeles Dodgers
282	Red Ruffing	Bill Dickey	1930–1946	New York Yankees
270	Steve Rogers	Gary Carter	1975–1984	Montreal Expos
264	Bob Lemon	Jim Hegan	1946–1957	Cleveland Indians
250	Early Wynn	Jim Hegan	1949–1957	Cleveland Indians
248	Tom Glavine	Javy Lopez	1994–2002	Atlanta Braves

if they stay healthy next season, they'll have the opportunity to take on the most hallowed of all sports trivia records

That’s actually kind of sweet.

Top five best uniforms

Luis Robert demolished that one!#ChangeTheGame | @NBCSChicago pic.twitter.com/H4hyAzZHor

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) August 29, 2021

That'll show em

"They got to be better."

Javier Báez, Francisco Lindor and Kevin Pillar are among players who gave the thumbs down to fans 👎

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) August 29, 2021

lmao unreal. their agents need to talk some sense into them if rojas won’t

no argument at all about those chisox uniforms

Robbie Ray just surpassed 1,000 innings last night and is baseball's new all-time leader in SO/9!

https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/strikeouts_per_nine_career.shtml

also nuts that seven of the top ten are current players.

Brad Hand DFA'd 7 hours before postseason rosters become official (7.27 ERA in last 11 outings)

John Smoltz & Al Leiter will not appear in-studio for MLBN after refusing to receive COVID-19 vaccine, The Post has learned.

what a surprise

The symmetry of these Matt Chapman drives is incredible. pic.twitter.com/WCf94YoG4l

— Jason Beck (@beckjason) September 1, 2021

after 15 years in the nationals front office, bob boone will resign rather than be vaccinated

bye bitch

I’m enjoying watching these idiots self-fire themselves.

not enjoying covid taking down half the red sox starting lineup. and i’m kind of baffled that the globe’s so called “reporters” haven’t managed to glean which positive cases are covidiots. isn’t this what reporters are for?? (red sox famously one of the least vaccinated teams in baseball)

Yankees Spanish radio announcer Rickie Ricardo rescued Yankees radio voice John Sterling from the flooding after last night’s game.

What a story. #SquadUp https://t.co/tb55P3OlDC

— Ryan Field (@RyanFieldABC) September 2, 2021

you can't predict baseball

the dodgers pythagorean record is 90-45, on pace for a 107-game winning season. irl they're 85-50, on pace for a 103 game-winning season, and in second place to the giants, who are also irl on pace to win 103 games. plus it's an odd year. giants for the WS, i guess.

also, adam wainwright continues to bizarrely be one of the most effective pitchers. he was pitcher of the month for september, and last night tossed a gem over 7 innings that was only slightly spoiled by the relief pitcher allowing a couple of wainwright's inherited runners to score. if that wouldn't have happened, i think he was about to break his PR of 26 consecutive scoreless innings, back in 2010. not bad for an old guy

also, the top 2 contenders for AL ROY are adolis garcia and randy arozarena, both of whom were talented cardinals outfielders a few years ago. garcia was traded to the rangers for cash considerations. arozarena was traded (along with jose martinez, one of the most entertaining baseball players of this century) for matthew liberatore, who will hopefully be like jack flaherty someday, but probably will not.

What is up with Salvador Perez’s season?! He’s hurt for a full year and comes back hitting like Johnny Bench! It’s crazy.

Maybe being a DH here and there helps? He is putting up Piazza-like numbers.

The down-three-runs walk-off grand slam will never get old

Brewers are having a remarkably blessed season

It's gonna be a weirdly inverted sports season in Wisconsin if the Brewers and Bucks win championships and Aaron Rodgers limps to a 9-7 closeout season

oh wow, i headed outside after the 8th inning to hang out with my neighbors, secure in another cardinals victory

honestly, i would hate for this cardinals team to make the wild card. their record against good teams (teams above .500) is 26-39. that's bad.

I hate having my team in the AL east.

yeah it's rough

sox and yankees both lose again... man it would be swell if the blue jays and mariners(!!) could overtake them

I don't get Tampa Bay at all. Personnel-wise, they may end up being the least impressive 100-win team ever. (Sounds like sour grapes from Blue Jay land, I know.)

They are maybe the most more-than-the-sum-of-it’s-parts team in history. Which is kind of their thing, traditionally.

this rays team will be remembered for being the one that had a rookie wander franco

they did win the short-season equivalent of 108 games last year (and the pennant)

i'm a little more confused by how all the giants' 35-year-olds are having great seasons. plus getting career years out of the previously suspect, like gausman and desclafani and (hot) d. leone

yeah, i was just looking at Leone's stats! honestly i thought maybe he was out of baseball.

and even this year, somehow he's walking 4.4/9 but his FIP is 3.49, xFIP of 4.63. and of course, an ERA of 1.55.

I do not understand at all how the Giants are having the season they are. Mariners too. But mainly the Giants.

the mariners are just lucky, i think -- they're 11 games up on their pythagorean!

I can at least relate some of the Giants' individual performances (fluke or otherwise) to their record. They've got two guys who should be top 5 or 10 in Cy (Gausman) and MVP (Crawford) voting, and also an HOF-bound player (Posey) having a very good year. The Rays have a catcher with 30 HR, great, but barely hitting over .200; a second baseman with 33 and not much else; an all-time defender in CF who doesn't hit much at all; and no one all that notable on their pitching staff that I can see. Cruz has been pretty good since coming over, but there's been some decline.

Franco looks great, and he broke a record belonging to Mickey Mantle. But even there, he's great for a 20-year-old; I'm not sure you'd take much notice of his season if he were 27.

plus getting career years out of the previously suspect, like gausman and desclafani and (hot) d. leone

Not to mention Mike Yastrzemski, a guy who wasn't considered good enough to get playing time for the Baltimore Orioles

I don't get Tampa Bay at all. Personnel-wise, they may end up being the least impressive 100-win team ever.

Speaking of which: basically, the way the Rays are so good this year is by absolutely mercilessly dominating the Orioles. The difference in head-to-head record against Baltimore is the entirety of the difference between the Rays and the Yankees in the standings (or was a week or so ago, at any rate.)

xp

oh man, i have a pretty good feeling that wander franco is going to be torturing the blue jays (and the rest of the AL east) for the next several years, although it's almost guaranteed that the rays will trade him away at the top of his value and get an absolute fortune for him.

he's more can't miss than vlad jr was, and vlad jr was can't miss.

hitting for a 5.0 WAR pace during your rookie season and surprising absolutely no one by doing it is very unusual and a very good indicator

(xposts)

That's it, you're right--I knew about that, slipped my mind. 18-1, +79 run differential vs. the Orioles; 70-51, +100 vs. the rest of the league.

Wander Franco: he can't miss, will be MVP by 2025 easy

my predictions have been made.

i will see all of YOU -- in the future

What’s this Mantle record?

Bleacher BJs

(xpost) I think it was consecutive games reaching base under the age of 21...Speaking of which, Mantle was 24 when he won his Triple Crown, and so was Williams when he won his first; Vlad would be younger than both.